There was a thread about this somewhere, but a search didn't bring it up, and I'm being lazy at the moment.

Just a question for those that have watched and read Live and Let Die. I'm going through the audio book right now (the 007 Reloaded version, really good btw), and loving it. The scene in with the aquariums and the scorpion fish seemed really cool! Does the movie do it up right? I've not seen the movie and think it would be an awesome scene to watch!

Do you really need this kind of justification to watch a Sean Connery James Bond movie?!

Live and Let Die was Roger Moore's first outing as Bond. Its also the first film I saw. I don't remember aquariums and scorpion fish in the film, but I do remember a coffin full of snakes in the graveyard.

I read all the Ian Fleming books after seeing the film.

On balance the books are better than the films especially the later Roger Moore ones when the plots got sillier and sillier. But you have to exclude The Spy Who Loved Me from any comparison as Ian Fleming's estate only sold the name of the book and not the novel itself.

Live and Let Die was Roger Moore's first outing as Bond. Its also the first film I saw. I don't remember aquariums and scorpion fish in the film, but I do remember a coffin full of snakes in the graveyard.

I read all the Ian Fleming books after seeing the film.

On balance the books are better than the films especially the later Roger Moore ones when the plots got sillier and sillier. But you have to exclude The Spy Who Loved Me from any comparison as Ian Fleming's estate only sold the name of the book and not the novel itself.

Oh really??

***SPOILER***

Spoiler:

There was this big scene finding how Mr. Big was smuggling money that involved scorpion fish, and large aquariums and feeding people to sharks. Plus there was a shootout in there. It was quite cool.

Actually, it was Roger Moore.
I was confusing it with Connery's various tangles with aquatic life in earlier films.

I remember in Thunderball he had an unexpected encounter.

Spoiler:

He was in a swimming pool with a shark and the shark was supposed to be on the other side of a glass wall (for safety). Connery felt something bump him and there was Mr. Shark. The pane of glass didn't quite reach all the way across the length of the pool.

There was a thread about this somewhere, but a search didn't bring it up, and I'm being lazy at the moment.

Just a question for those that have watched and read Live and Let Die. I'm going through the audio book right now (the 007 Reloaded version, really good btw), and loving it. The scene in with the aquariums and the scorpion fish seemed really cool! Does the movie do it up right? I've not seen the movie and think it would be an awesome scene to watch!

The movie is one of the better Bonds, but doesn't follow the book too tightly. The best book/movie match was Goldfinger...

It's interesting on how people view the Bond films, the actors who played Bond, and the books.

I thought the books were OK, but nothing great. As for the films and the actors, I think my favorite of the films, and I've seen every one of them in the theater when first released, was Goldeneye. I liked the interactions between Sean Bean, Pierce Brosnan, and Robbie Coltrane.

Of the actors who have played Bond, I think the best has been Brosnan, followed by Daniel Craig, then Sean Connery. Brosnan had the ability to look truly as if he belonged in the world of the wealthy, something that Connery didn't pull off well. Craig, I think, was sorely out of place playing baccarat, but he portrays a youthful, rough Bond very well.

Huh, we see things from different perspectives. I was certain Connery would be the one and only true Bond, so debonaire yet lethal with almost no slapstick humor, but Craig gained serious traction with his physicality and rawer emotional edge. Brosnan? Meh, but I realize it is purely subjective.

Also unusual for me that I haven't read any of Ian Fleming's books. I think I don't want to ruin my childhood memories of the movies I enjoyed so much.

My father was a diehard James Bond fan, from the first movie on, so a few days after I had turned 12 and was legally allowed to, he took me to see "James Bond hunts Dr. No" in a cinema showing these special films, to make sure that I knew who was the one and only "real" bond (doing the maths, that must have been in 1981, before DVDs) .

Back then, it was eary ... there were only 3 bonds so far, Connery, Lazenby and Moore. So of course, for me Sean Connery will always be the "real" bond (even when he's 90 and moving along in a wheelchair), while Daniel Craig certainly is beginning to grow on me. The others are nice, but well ...

One word regarding the books, however ... I read those from the local library at about the same time I saw my first JB movie and I remember that they were very loosely related to the movies ... more realistic, mostly.

Of the actors who have played Bond, I think the best has been Brosnan, followed by Daniel Craig, then Sean Connery. Brosnan had the ability to look truly as if he belonged in the world of the wealthy, something that Connery didn't pull off well. Craig, I think, was sorely out of place playing baccarat, but he portrays a youthful, rough Bond very well.

Connery is and always will be the quintessential Bond, but I think Brosnan was terrific, a very very close second. He had it all - he could portray the style, brutality, humor, charm and physicality equally well as the situation demanded. Wish he had starred in more than 4 films. Goldeneye and Tomorrow Never Dies are terrific and I'd put The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day in the top half of Bond films (although the casting of Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist in TWINE was unforgivably preposterous, and the plot of DAD is utterly absurd).

Craig is a fine actor who does Bond well with impressive intensity. He's also been lucky in that Casino Royale and Skyfall would have been terrific regardless of who played Bond. Moore was fine but he was getting old and his movies were often bland (For Your Eyes Only is by far his best IMO). Lazenby was only in one but it was a great one. Would like to have seen him in a few more films. Dalton was okay - and a welcome relief after the last couple with an elderly and tired looking Moore - but miscast. I recently watched all the Bond films, leading up to Skyfall, and it was fun to watch the progression over time as well as the ups and downs in terms of quality. If anyone wants to compare rankings of their favorites, I'd be happy to even though it's off topic.

I tried reading Fleming's "From Russia With Love" but it seemed so dated that I put it aside. I prefer the movies.

I think also who we liked most as Bond is a little generational. While I only think of Connery as being the best Bond, my son loves Brosnan and he thinks that Craig is the best. Of course, the last few Bond films have been excellent movies in their own right and either Bond actor would have been great in those movies.